The Life-Saving Potential Of Social Media

By Ken Congdon, editor in chief, Health IT Outcomes

Social media has established itself as a ubiquitous communication vehicle in American society and has been instrumental in reuniting long lost friends, igniting romantic relationships, connecting job seekers with new career opportunities, and even rallying people toward common causes or goals. In fact, because of its scale and influence, social media is quickly becoming the communication medium of choice in some industries. However, in healthcare, use of social media has largely been limited to promoting hospital events and preventative health measures due, in large part, to patient privacy concerns. This all changed a couple of weeks ago when two members of Health IT Outcomes's Twitter network (@MatthewBrowning and @emoryhealthcare) exchanged a powerful series of tweets that illustrated how effective social media can be as a communication tool in emergency patient care.

The events transpired on the morning of April 25, when Browning's wife's grandmother suffered a ruptured aorta at a rural hospital in South Georgia that was ill-equipped to treat her complex medical needs. In an effort to help his family through this crisis, Browning immediately turned to Twitter and sent the following tweet to Atlanta-based health system Emory Healthcare:

"@emoryhealthcare NEED HELP NOW!! Grandma w/RUPTURED AORTA needs Card Surgeon/OR ASAP, STAT! Can you accept Life Flight NOW!!?"

Within minutes, Morgan Griffith, web communications and social media specialist at Emory Healthcare tweeted the following back to Browning:

"@MatthewBrowning Matthew, please either call 911 or have your grandma's doctor call our transfer service at 404-686-XXXX"

Since messages in Twitter can only be 140 characters long, Griffith focused on providing Browning with the information that would be most critical in getting him and his family immediate assistance. Minutes later, Browning responded:

"@emoryhealthcare We are doing that! She is in a small South Georgia hospital right now – but needs MAJOR help – we are calling, thanks!"

A series of tweets back and forth followed regarding Emory's acceptance of the Life Flight, but the important thing to note is that with the help of social media, Browning was able to help get his wife's grandmother airlifted to Emory within 16 minutes of receiving contact information via Twitter. Unfortunately, in this instance, the patient did not survive her traumatic illness. Our deepest condolences go out to the Browning family on their loss.

Despite this tragic outcome, the use of social media in this real-world example is inspiring on several levels. It illustrates that social media can be more than just a glorified bulletin board in the healthcare industry, but can actually help solve problems for patients, families, and communities in real time. Obviously, moving further down this path will require some policies to be written to allow social media and healthcare privacy laws to peacefully coexist. However, this glimpse of the value social media can offer patients and healthcare facilities may now warrant those types of conversations to take place. In the meantime, you can read the full two-part case study covering the interaction between Browning and Emory Healthcare on Emory's blog. The links are provided below:

Can Twitter Help Save Lives? Part I
Can Twitter Help Save Lives? Part II

Ken Congdon is Editor In Chief of Health IT Outcomes. He can be reached at ken.congdon@jamesonpublishing.com.